If a state mandates saying the 10 commandments in classrooms, teachers should ensure to make space for a reading from the Koran and any other religious text. That way it becomes educational at least. The GOP is fascist, I will say once again. Thanks for all you are doing Robert.
Robert, two of my books and four of my "Telling Her Stories" programs explore how women fought for generations to get the right to vote so I was really taken aback to read Voter Rider's eye-popping statistics on women's voting eligibility in your column:
"Because of name changes associated with marriages and divorce, women frequently have a government-issued ID that does not match their legal name. As noted on the VoteRiders website, Based on current census data, the only available proof-of-citizenship documents possessed by almost 37 million voting-age women do not reflect their current name."
However I think you actually underestimate the damage -- you state: The above statistic is shocking. It means that nearly 15% of the eligible voting population (37 million/252 million) can be blocked from voting by restrictive voter ID laws.
I couldn't quickly find a breakdown of voting age population by gender but, given that men die younger than women, using a 55%/45% F/M ratio, it would mean that over 27% (37M/138M) of women in voter ID states are ineligible to vote!!
Horrifying!
Thanks for all you do to keep us sane and informed (along with the excellent investigative reporting of Judd Legum, historical analysis from Heather Cox Richardson and Jessica Craven's Chop Wood Carry Water daily activism).
So glad you (and your "managing editor") are finally feeling better!
Biden should take this opportunity to school Kevin..
"Grow up Kevin. The Constitution was even amended to ensure this nation pays its bills.
That's how important you should take this, as an obligation of Congress to be faithful to the Constitution and raise the debt ceiling as a non-negotiable matter of course."
People who research and study the field make a distinction between gender and sex. Sex _is_ actually binary. People are born either male or female. There is a small fraction of the population born with different chromosomal structures, and fall under the category intersex, but this is rare, about 1.7% of the population. The great majority or people are born either male or female. On the other hand, gender refers to how someone behaves and lives socially. When a person becomes transgender, they use hormones and surgery in order to look and act more like the other sex. But the fact remains that they were born either male or female.
The problem with trans athletes competing with non-trans athletes is that trans girls and trans women, because they were born male, will have an advantage over natal females. They will be taller and stronger. As we deal with this issue more and more, it will become clear that trans boys and trans men will not want to compete with natal boys and men because they'll be disadvantaged, having been born female. The issue only presents itself with trans girls and trans women, because they have the advantage of having been born male and will tend to be stronger and taller. At the grade school level it seems the kindest and most welcoming for a young trans girl to run with her team, but the fact remains that sports in general is a very competitive field and in high school, college, and beyond, trans girls and trans women will put natal girls and natal women at a competitive disadvantage. In order to be fair to natal females but also allow trans athletes to compete, we’ll need to have a special category for trans athletes.
What the "GOP" is seeking to impose is not "Christianity" as exemplified by Jesus of Nazareth.
I put "GOP" in quotes because the extremists currently using the name of the political party are in no way reflective of Abraham Lincoln's Republicans, and are closer to the Confederate secessionists who want to destroy the union. IJS
It’s no secret: the GQP wants to destroy our government and Democracy itself. It’s in plain view everywhere! Maybe first and foremost in plain view is Bannon’s own words.
"We're taking over all the elections,"
“We’re taking action. We’re taking over school boards. We’re taking over the Republican Party with the precinct committee strategy. We’re taking over all the elections.”
“We’re going to continue that and get to the bottom of 3 November and we’re going to decertify the electors and you’re going to have a constitutional crisis.”
Bannon has called on “4,000 shock troops” to “deconstruct” the federal government “brick by brick.”
“Hey, I want to be one of those 4,000 shock troops”. “This is taking on and defeating and deconstructing the administrative state”.
An article in the RollingStone had title in part:
“Steve Bannon Is Reminding Everyone That the Right Is Very Much Trying to Destroy Democracy”.
Sheesh, It couldn’t get any clearer than that! So let’s not mince words in any way, call it what it is. The Republican Party will stop at nothing in order to destroy our Democracy, even that means not raising the debt ceiling. In fact defaulting could very well be one of the tools in their destroy Democracy arsenal.
If Biden needs to raise the debt ceiling by executive order (or whatever means) then he should do it. No doubt the GQP extremists will impeach him. It’s all part of their plan: Destroy Democracy and Implement their own form of “government” be it authoritarian, dictatorship, a “Christian Democracy” “Illiberal democracy”. Again, Let’s not mince words!! Call it for what it is. Do whatever it takes to combat the insanity. Fight them at the ballot box, fight the insanity. Call out the right wing extremist hypocrites! Speak truth to power!
The Republican agenda to indoctrinate children into religion is disgusting. Yet, despite this desperate attempt, more and more young people are turning their backs on ‘organized’ religion.
Another great Newsletter. Thank you Robert. And now I will become the most unpopular person in the "Hubbell Forum".
President Biden will be remembered as the President who righted the ship of state after it had almost sunk to the bottom of the sea. His list of accomplishments (international and domestic) and his contributions to a return of civility and respect are enormously important. Despite a couple of areas where I vehemently disagree with him, I am proud that he is our President. He will be viewed as a "great one" through the lens of history. And I will be forever grateful he was there.
But if Joe Biden wants to secure the White House for Democrats in 2024, he will NOT run for re-election. Not because he is "too old". Not because he couldn't govern well for another four years. He could.
If Joe Biden runs, millions of Independent Young People will stay home - they won't vote. The vast majority of young people are "Independents" - they don't identify with either major party. The view from Gen Y and Gen Z is that our generation has failed. Failed at preventing school slaughters. Failed at getting big and dark, corporate money out of politics. Failed at giving younger generations better income in the face of rising costs of everything. Failed at reigning in the Oligarchs and their continuous personal enrichment at the expense of the first generations who can't expect to have a better life than their parents.
And the big one. Our generation has failed to work on the Climate Crisis. We have nibbled at it. But the oceans and the rivers and the winds and the fires are now in payback mode. President Biden's approval of the Conoco-Phillips Willow Project in Alaska was a fatal mistake. Not that this one project was Earth ending. But that approval sent a message to young people. It said that Biden played politics and didn't "get it". Even if he had lost in court, he should have stood next to his Indigenous American Secretary of the Interior and shouted "Hell, NO!" Sometimes you have to stand firm and create a symbolic act.
And then there is immigration. I don't have the correct formula for this one. But I am not impressed with our government's approach. How this will affect young voters, I am not sure. But Biden and the Democrats look feckless on this issue.
I believe that the Democrats are on the correct or better side of all issues. I will never vote for anyone else but a Democrat. I didn't feel that way 20 years ago. But I HAVE to feel that way now. And I will ALWAYS vote. And I suspect most here feel the same way. But the average age of the readership of this letter and LFAA is what we need to keep in mind. Most of us are near or well past the classic retirement age. And we have an enormous catalog of information that INSTRUCTS us as to why we must never vote for a GQP candidate - and that we MUST vote. But that's not how millions of young people feel. They are disgusted. They don't think the system works. They think older politicians are all the same. Useless.
Here is the thing. Gen Y and Gen Z will represent between 40% and 45% of the potential voters. If too many of them feel apathetic because the contest is between two old guys - who represent a generation that has destroyed the planet - we will lose. We can't afford to lose. The Earth can't afford to lose.
And that's only half of it. The other half is all the down ballot Democrats who won't get voted for at every level of our government, if the Presidential Candidate doesn't inspire young folks to vote. Legislators at the state and local level...and forget about regaining the House of Representatives and perhaps holding the Senate.
The Democratic bench is deep. There are many potential candidates who are younger, yet experienced. Who are on the correct side of the issues and who can inspire - with youthful vigor and clear speeches. Obama came out of nowhere - a first term Senator with a very short resume. Time for someone who can do the same again. Time to be unafraid and be confident in our message. But we need a new, well spoken younger messenger.
President Biden: Dump your ego and do the thing that's the best for our nation. And the planet.
As a solution to the debt ceiling fiasco, economist Paul Krugman, Nobel prize winner and NYT columnist, suggested in an Oct 1, 2021 column that Biden direct the US Mint (an entity under his control) to mint a $1 trillion coin and deposit it with the Federal Reserve. The $1 trillion could then be drawn on to pay the country’s bills. NYT subscribers can find the article by searching “Krugman debt ceiling solution”. Yes it’s gimmicky—but no more so than what McCarthy is doing. Besides, all’s fair in love and debt ceiling wars . . .
I really think that hoping the supremes will use the Bremerton Coach case to OK school Bible readings is misguided. The court opinion, to get to its idea that the Coach should be reinstated, had to squint REAL hard and to describe the event as a "moment of prayer on the sidelines;" what it was actually was the coach praying to a huddle of the whole team in the middle of the field. The question will be whether ears can squint so that reading the Bible to a class is really a moment of private prayer.
Looking forward to President Bidens announcement. Some time ago there was a discussion about Democrats needing a great tag line. I would like to suggest "Vote for Democracy" This has probably already been said before and I just don't remember.... but I still like it.
A cacophony of corruption. In the absence of building consensus on the basis of legitimate policy proposals open to debate, compromise and resolution, Republicans are doing their damndest to avoid all Democratic channels that would provide any means of national agreement and accord. They have abandoned any pretense of concern for democracy. As a business consultant over many years, I used an analogy to describe what happens to a company that ignores signs of its own troubles. "It's like an automobile reaching and driving over the peak of a summit and realizing that the car just ran out of gas. It's all downhill from there while the rate of decline increases to breakneck speed and the driver loses all possible control." This describes the Republican Party's prescribed destiny - to crash the vehicle of Democracy. The only survivors will be Fascistic, wealthy white men who will dictate our futures, enforced by new "SS"-style brigades, already armed, locked and loaded. Dystopian you say. Yes. There will come a time when words will no longer suffice.
Then what does hope look like? My wife and I are vacationing in Santa Fe at the moment. We stayed in a Bed & Breakfast. At the breakfast table the first morning, I met a gentleman who shared my first name, who was born the same month, whose sister had the same name as my wife, who shared similar interests and who was cordial and funny and available. I immediately was drawn to this individual. The conversation flourished until one of us mentioned politics which revealed a difference of opinions and affiliation. Under ordinary circumstances, such information would be a game changer. "That's one discussion we don't need to go near", he said. I responded, "Not now, anyway. We are enjoying this conversation too much". We exchanged phone numbers and agreed that the brief relationship of trust developed over coffee, frittata and scone was respectful and trusting enough to withstand further exploration. Lesson: Create conversation. Meet people where they are. Use words before they are useless...and we lose all hope.
I second the kudos to Judd Legum and Popular Information.
Newsflash: The present Republicans are the greatest threat to the republic in our history!
In other breaking news, water is still wet and sun continues to rise in the east.
If a state mandates saying the 10 commandments in classrooms, teachers should ensure to make space for a reading from the Koran and any other religious text. That way it becomes educational at least. The GOP is fascist, I will say once again. Thanks for all you are doing Robert.
Almost every day, when I read Today’s Edition, I am grateful for the sophisticated rallying cry on behalf of American democracy. Thank you again.
Robert, two of my books and four of my "Telling Her Stories" programs explore how women fought for generations to get the right to vote so I was really taken aback to read Voter Rider's eye-popping statistics on women's voting eligibility in your column:
"Because of name changes associated with marriages and divorce, women frequently have a government-issued ID that does not match their legal name. As noted on the VoteRiders website, Based on current census data, the only available proof-of-citizenship documents possessed by almost 37 million voting-age women do not reflect their current name."
However I think you actually underestimate the damage -- you state: The above statistic is shocking. It means that nearly 15% of the eligible voting population (37 million/252 million) can be blocked from voting by restrictive voter ID laws.
I couldn't quickly find a breakdown of voting age population by gender but, given that men die younger than women, using a 55%/45% F/M ratio, it would mean that over 27% (37M/138M) of women in voter ID states are ineligible to vote!!
Horrifying!
Thanks for all you do to keep us sane and informed (along with the excellent investigative reporting of Judd Legum, historical analysis from Heather Cox Richardson and Jessica Craven's Chop Wood Carry Water daily activism).
So glad you (and your "managing editor") are finally feeling better!
Carol Simon Levin www.tellingherstories.com
Biden should take this opportunity to school Kevin..
"Grow up Kevin. The Constitution was even amended to ensure this nation pays its bills.
That's how important you should take this, as an obligation of Congress to be faithful to the Constitution and raise the debt ceiling as a non-negotiable matter of course."
People who research and study the field make a distinction between gender and sex. Sex _is_ actually binary. People are born either male or female. There is a small fraction of the population born with different chromosomal structures, and fall under the category intersex, but this is rare, about 1.7% of the population. The great majority or people are born either male or female. On the other hand, gender refers to how someone behaves and lives socially. When a person becomes transgender, they use hormones and surgery in order to look and act more like the other sex. But the fact remains that they were born either male or female.
The problem with trans athletes competing with non-trans athletes is that trans girls and trans women, because they were born male, will have an advantage over natal females. They will be taller and stronger. As we deal with this issue more and more, it will become clear that trans boys and trans men will not want to compete with natal boys and men because they'll be disadvantaged, having been born female. The issue only presents itself with trans girls and trans women, because they have the advantage of having been born male and will tend to be stronger and taller. At the grade school level it seems the kindest and most welcoming for a young trans girl to run with her team, but the fact remains that sports in general is a very competitive field and in high school, college, and beyond, trans girls and trans women will put natal girls and natal women at a competitive disadvantage. In order to be fair to natal females but also allow trans athletes to compete, we’ll need to have a special category for trans athletes.
Thanks!
We certainly live in "interesting times."
SCOTUS needs a complete overhaul.
What the "GOP" is seeking to impose is not "Christianity" as exemplified by Jesus of Nazareth.
I put "GOP" in quotes because the extremists currently using the name of the political party are in no way reflective of Abraham Lincoln's Republicans, and are closer to the Confederate secessionists who want to destroy the union. IJS
It’s no secret: the GQP wants to destroy our government and Democracy itself. It’s in plain view everywhere! Maybe first and foremost in plain view is Bannon’s own words.
"We're taking over all the elections,"
“We’re taking action. We’re taking over school boards. We’re taking over the Republican Party with the precinct committee strategy. We’re taking over all the elections.”
“We’re going to continue that and get to the bottom of 3 November and we’re going to decertify the electors and you’re going to have a constitutional crisis.”
Bannon has called on “4,000 shock troops” to “deconstruct” the federal government “brick by brick.”
“Hey, I want to be one of those 4,000 shock troops”. “This is taking on and defeating and deconstructing the administrative state”.
An article in the RollingStone had title in part:
“Steve Bannon Is Reminding Everyone That the Right Is Very Much Trying to Destroy Democracy”.
Sheesh, It couldn’t get any clearer than that! So let’s not mince words in any way, call it what it is. The Republican Party will stop at nothing in order to destroy our Democracy, even that means not raising the debt ceiling. In fact defaulting could very well be one of the tools in their destroy Democracy arsenal.
If Biden needs to raise the debt ceiling by executive order (or whatever means) then he should do it. No doubt the GQP extremists will impeach him. It’s all part of their plan: Destroy Democracy and Implement their own form of “government” be it authoritarian, dictatorship, a “Christian Democracy” “Illiberal democracy”. Again, Let’s not mince words!! Call it for what it is. Do whatever it takes to combat the insanity. Fight them at the ballot box, fight the insanity. Call out the right wing extremist hypocrites! Speak truth to power!
The Republican agenda to indoctrinate children into religion is disgusting. Yet, despite this desperate attempt, more and more young people are turning their backs on ‘organized’ religion.
Another great Newsletter. Thank you Robert. And now I will become the most unpopular person in the "Hubbell Forum".
President Biden will be remembered as the President who righted the ship of state after it had almost sunk to the bottom of the sea. His list of accomplishments (international and domestic) and his contributions to a return of civility and respect are enormously important. Despite a couple of areas where I vehemently disagree with him, I am proud that he is our President. He will be viewed as a "great one" through the lens of history. And I will be forever grateful he was there.
But if Joe Biden wants to secure the White House for Democrats in 2024, he will NOT run for re-election. Not because he is "too old". Not because he couldn't govern well for another four years. He could.
If Joe Biden runs, millions of Independent Young People will stay home - they won't vote. The vast majority of young people are "Independents" - they don't identify with either major party. The view from Gen Y and Gen Z is that our generation has failed. Failed at preventing school slaughters. Failed at getting big and dark, corporate money out of politics. Failed at giving younger generations better income in the face of rising costs of everything. Failed at reigning in the Oligarchs and their continuous personal enrichment at the expense of the first generations who can't expect to have a better life than their parents.
And the big one. Our generation has failed to work on the Climate Crisis. We have nibbled at it. But the oceans and the rivers and the winds and the fires are now in payback mode. President Biden's approval of the Conoco-Phillips Willow Project in Alaska was a fatal mistake. Not that this one project was Earth ending. But that approval sent a message to young people. It said that Biden played politics and didn't "get it". Even if he had lost in court, he should have stood next to his Indigenous American Secretary of the Interior and shouted "Hell, NO!" Sometimes you have to stand firm and create a symbolic act.
And then there is immigration. I don't have the correct formula for this one. But I am not impressed with our government's approach. How this will affect young voters, I am not sure. But Biden and the Democrats look feckless on this issue.
I believe that the Democrats are on the correct or better side of all issues. I will never vote for anyone else but a Democrat. I didn't feel that way 20 years ago. But I HAVE to feel that way now. And I will ALWAYS vote. And I suspect most here feel the same way. But the average age of the readership of this letter and LFAA is what we need to keep in mind. Most of us are near or well past the classic retirement age. And we have an enormous catalog of information that INSTRUCTS us as to why we must never vote for a GQP candidate - and that we MUST vote. But that's not how millions of young people feel. They are disgusted. They don't think the system works. They think older politicians are all the same. Useless.
Here is the thing. Gen Y and Gen Z will represent between 40% and 45% of the potential voters. If too many of them feel apathetic because the contest is between two old guys - who represent a generation that has destroyed the planet - we will lose. We can't afford to lose. The Earth can't afford to lose.
And that's only half of it. The other half is all the down ballot Democrats who won't get voted for at every level of our government, if the Presidential Candidate doesn't inspire young folks to vote. Legislators at the state and local level...and forget about regaining the House of Representatives and perhaps holding the Senate.
The Democratic bench is deep. There are many potential candidates who are younger, yet experienced. Who are on the correct side of the issues and who can inspire - with youthful vigor and clear speeches. Obama came out of nowhere - a first term Senator with a very short resume. Time for someone who can do the same again. Time to be unafraid and be confident in our message. But we need a new, well spoken younger messenger.
President Biden: Dump your ego and do the thing that's the best for our nation. And the planet.
As a solution to the debt ceiling fiasco, economist Paul Krugman, Nobel prize winner and NYT columnist, suggested in an Oct 1, 2021 column that Biden direct the US Mint (an entity under his control) to mint a $1 trillion coin and deposit it with the Federal Reserve. The $1 trillion could then be drawn on to pay the country’s bills. NYT subscribers can find the article by searching “Krugman debt ceiling solution”. Yes it’s gimmicky—but no more so than what McCarthy is doing. Besides, all’s fair in love and debt ceiling wars . . .
I really think that hoping the supremes will use the Bremerton Coach case to OK school Bible readings is misguided. The court opinion, to get to its idea that the Coach should be reinstated, had to squint REAL hard and to describe the event as a "moment of prayer on the sidelines;" what it was actually was the coach praying to a huddle of the whole team in the middle of the field. The question will be whether ears can squint so that reading the Bible to a class is really a moment of private prayer.
Looking forward to President Bidens announcement. Some time ago there was a discussion about Democrats needing a great tag line. I would like to suggest "Vote for Democracy" This has probably already been said before and I just don't remember.... but I still like it.
A cacophony of corruption. In the absence of building consensus on the basis of legitimate policy proposals open to debate, compromise and resolution, Republicans are doing their damndest to avoid all Democratic channels that would provide any means of national agreement and accord. They have abandoned any pretense of concern for democracy. As a business consultant over many years, I used an analogy to describe what happens to a company that ignores signs of its own troubles. "It's like an automobile reaching and driving over the peak of a summit and realizing that the car just ran out of gas. It's all downhill from there while the rate of decline increases to breakneck speed and the driver loses all possible control." This describes the Republican Party's prescribed destiny - to crash the vehicle of Democracy. The only survivors will be Fascistic, wealthy white men who will dictate our futures, enforced by new "SS"-style brigades, already armed, locked and loaded. Dystopian you say. Yes. There will come a time when words will no longer suffice.
Then what does hope look like? My wife and I are vacationing in Santa Fe at the moment. We stayed in a Bed & Breakfast. At the breakfast table the first morning, I met a gentleman who shared my first name, who was born the same month, whose sister had the same name as my wife, who shared similar interests and who was cordial and funny and available. I immediately was drawn to this individual. The conversation flourished until one of us mentioned politics which revealed a difference of opinions and affiliation. Under ordinary circumstances, such information would be a game changer. "That's one discussion we don't need to go near", he said. I responded, "Not now, anyway. We are enjoying this conversation too much". We exchanged phone numbers and agreed that the brief relationship of trust developed over coffee, frittata and scone was respectful and trusting enough to withstand further exploration. Lesson: Create conversation. Meet people where they are. Use words before they are useless...and we lose all hope.
Nobody likes Kevin